The Daily Valet. - 9/21/22, Wednesday

✔️ An 'Unimaginable' Number

Wednesday, September 21st Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Today I learned not to use the shrug emoji.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

An ‘Unimaginable’ Number of Ants

There are 2.5 million ants for every one person on Earth

To say that ants outnumber people on Earth would be a serious understatement. According to the latest science, there are estimated to be 2.5 million times more ants walking around this planet than people. Put another way: It’s the ants’ world, and we’re just living in it.

Researchers estimate there are 20 quadrillion ants worldwide. That’s 20,000 trillion! And if you gathered them all and put them on a scale, they’d weigh more than all of the wild birds and mammals in the world—combined.

The estimate is nearly 20 times higher than previous counts. “We were very surprised about the large number of ants we found,” Sabine S. Nooten, an insect ecologist and co-author of the study, told CNN Tuesday. Unlike previous counts, the research team of this latest study based the new estimate on “observational evidence from an extensive data set of globally distributed ant samples,” making it much more reliable.

The research could help scientists understand the role that ants play in ecosystems and provide a way to assess how these insects and others are affected by threats such as climate change.

Ants, like just like people, have marched across virtually every continent and all sorts of habitats. Ground-dwelling ants are most abundant in tropical and subtropical regions, according to the research team, but they can be found nearly everywhere except the coldest parts of the planet.

Of course, it should come as little surprise considering how ubiquitous these busy and social insects are and the fact that they have thrived since the age of dinosaurs—with the oldest-known ant fossil dating back about 100 million years to the Cretaceous period.

↦ FYI: How do ants crawl on walls? A biologist explains to The Conversation the ant’s sticky, gravity-defying grip.

STDs Are on the Rise

The situation is ‘out of control,’ prompting health officials to look for new solutions

In the United States, there was a 26% rise of syphilis infections and 16% increase in HIV cases reported last year. Health officials are calling it an epidemic that has gotten “out of control.”

“It is imperative that we ... work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the U.S.,” Dr. Leandro Mena of the CDC said at a conference earlier this week.

Preliminary data recently released by the CDC (and echoed by the World Health Organization) shows that cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia all went up last year, after dipping during the first year of the pandemic. What's more, the surge is found across the country and officials are asking for increased prevention efforts and new treatment protocols.

In his remarks, Mena argued that there are still steps that can be taken to reduce the incidence of STDs. These include reducing the stigma associated with infections, convincing people to adopt safe sex practices like condoms, and making it easier and cheaper for people to get tested. One important way to improve testing, he added, would be the development of at-home tests, similar to those now widely available for COVID or pregnancy. Until then, be safe kids.

↦ Meanwhile: WIRED reports that monkeypox cases are falling in the U.S. after people organized, got vaccinated and changed their behavior.

The Battle for Dinner Reservations

Hour-long lines, elite memberships and shady res-trading groups? All just to eat.

Ever since this summer, people have reported difficulties getting a good dinner reservation. And it seems to have only gotten worse.

Reservation searches are up 107% around the country since last year, with nearly half looking for seats at higher-priced haunts, according to data from Yelp. And restaurants like New York blockbuster Dhamaka are seeing up to 1,500 people on their virtual waiting list every night.

Which means the ultra-wealthy (who famously don't like waiting for anything) are finding ways to get in by any means necessary. According to Bon Appétit, one Hamptons restaurateur has been “gifted private jet rides, a Rolex watch, and Gucci shoes from diners who want on-demand tables at his Italian restaurant. Scalpers are slinging black market restaurant reservations like they're contraband, and finance bros are launching Resy-defying reservation trading groups like they're fresh out of a Y Combinator boot camp.”

Perhaps that's why some people have come to realize something that I've known for years: Eat early and you skip a lot of dinner drama. T Magazine reports that more and more people are embracing the joys of twilight dinner (along with the relative ease to get in at that time). And bonus: When you do an early dinner, you have time to get in a walk and maybe dessert before it's too late.

↦ FYI: OpenTable seats more than 31 million diners via online reservations each month.

Dwell Starts Selling Houses

The small, stylish buildings are designed by Norm Architects and delivered to you

For more than two decades, Dwell has built a solid reputation for showcasing cool, modern homes. But now they're not just promoting them, they're selling them.

The brand just announced the Dwell House, a small, streamlined pre-fab home that will be delivered right to you. It's completely constructed off-site and transported to you—no muss and no fussing with months of building.

The 540-square-foot one-bedroom building is designed to be an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) and ships turnkey with a full set of kitchen appliances from Bosch, tons of built-in storage and a ducted mini-split for climate control. But such thoughtful design doesn't come cheap: it starts at $389,000 (but I think it has free shipping, so there's that).

According to a recent survey of their subscribers, 71% of respondents are interested in adding an ADU to their backyard. 81% of that subset would use the house as a guest property for visitors or multigenerational space for family members, while 74% would use it as a flex space for a home gym, office or studio. Honestly, I'd love one.

↦ Dig Deeper: While it seems like a new building method, modular (prefab) construction has been with us nearly two hundred years.

In Other News

↦ Special Master in Mar-a-Lago Case Appears Skeptical of Trump ‘Declassification’ Claims

↦ For the First Time in 230 Years, Congress Has Full U.S. Indigenous Representation

↦ A purchase at a Small Town Sale Turned Out to Be a ‘Priceless’ de Kooning Painting Stolen in 1985

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

The worst cities for traffic

The end of influencers?

Cooking chicken in NyQuil

You Should Build a Fragrance Wardrobe

Signature scents are fine. But they’re limiting.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with having a go-to cologne. After all, the heart (and the nose) wants what it wants, right? And there's something to be said for having a signature scent. One that you can rely on or that people associate with you.

But then again, there is a phenomenon known as “nose blindness,” a temporary, naturally occurring adaptation of your body that leads to an inability to detect or distinguish common scents in your surroundings. Which means the more you wear a cologne, the less you'll notice it. Fine for others, but you chose that scent because you liked it, right?

Fragrance is a form of self-expression. The scents we layer on our skin say something about us and the image we want to project out into the world. Just like the clothes we wear. And like our clothes, swapping out one fragrance for another has the same effect on your psyche as taking off a cozy hoodie and replacing it with a leather jacket. You feel it, right? You carry yourself differently.

We speak with a cologne pro, who highlights the benefits of diversifying your personal fragrance collection. We also round up the best new scents to try at the moment. Who's ready to smell better?

↦ Read: How to build an amazing smelling fragrance wardrobe.

What We’re Buying

Norse Projects Frederik Tab Series Fleece Jacket

Lightweight yet extremely warm, this jacket is made from fleece with air pockets for thermo-regulation and breathability. And it's now more than half off.

↦ Get It: $325 / $130 by Norse Projects